Neighbors

E I G H T

On Monday, I decided to take my mom and Bryce's advice to put myself out there by signing up to audition for the musical. I figured since everyone compliments my singing, might as well use it for something other than calming Sadie down.

We were doing The Little Mermaid and I couldn't be more excited since this was one of my favorite musicals. I scribbled my name down on the sign-up sheet that was outside the auditorium.

"I can't believe you're actually doing this," Bryce said behind me.

"You told me to put myself out there," I shrugged.

"Yes, but when I said that I didn't mean out on stage in front of everyone."

"What are you so worried about?" I asked him. He was never this unsure about anything.

"Gabrielle is the queen of the theatre company. She also happens to hate you more than anything," he stated the facts.

"I'm aware of all of that."

"And you're still gonna audition?" he gave me a strange look.

I nodded. "I can't wait to see the look on her face at auditions on Friday."

***

That night, I went home and chose a song to prepare for my audition. For an hour, I debated on doing Part Of Your World but decided against it because most people auditioning would choose that one. I settled on performing If Only, the powerful quartet piece sang by Ariel, Prince Eric, Sebastian, and King Triton. However, I would only perform Ariel's part at the beginning of the song.

After I finished my schoolwork, I began working on my audition song.

"Hey sweetheart, whatcha up to?" my mom entered my room.

"Working on my audition piece," I told her. She looked at me skeptically. "I'm taking your advice and putting myself out there. So I decided to audition for the musical."

She beamed brightly. "Oh honey, that's great. I just know you're gonna do great. When are auditions?"

"On Friday," I informed her.

"Oh well then I won't distract you any longer," she exited my room after kissing my temple.

I stayed up until midnight learning and memorizing the lyrics.

By the time I got into bed, I was quite excited for the Friday auditions.

***
BECKETT

When I got to school Monday morning, I went and signed up for auditions for the musical. I quickly jotted my name down before rushing to my locker before any of my friends saw me.

"Hey Beck, what's going on?" Zachary came over to me and hit me on the back. "So I heard that you were planning to ask Gabrielle to prom."

"Where'd you hear that?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

"Gabrielle. She said you mentioned it on your date the other day."

"I didn't say anything about prom," I shook my head, trying to recall the conversations I had with Gabrielle from breakfast.

"Well, she's going around telling everyone that you're asking her to prom and to be your girlfriend this afternoon," he informed me.

"Are you serious?" He nodded. "She is unbelievable."

I stormed off to go find Gabrielle and confront her. After asking around, I finally found her sitting at one of the tables in the courtyard with Hannah and Stephanie.